Elemental Light (Paranormal Public Book 9) (30 page)

I continued to examine the stones.

There were clusters of families: the Tinters, the Ellerisons, the Maisers, none were names I had ever heard of, but the quotes on some of the graves told me a little bit about the paranormals laid there. Some were sad - “Beloved and always loved daughter and wife” - while others were  morbidly funny: “Always early, even in death.”

I was so lost in looking around that it took me several minutes to put together the unifying principle of the graveyard.

All
of the graves were those of elementals.

I had been here once before with Keller, I realized. The cemetery was at one edge of Paranormal Public, presumably because that’s where many of the elementals had lived when there were still many of us, and it was also where many had died.

I looked around at the expanse of graves and wondered what I was doing there. Zervos had also just mentioned the elementals’ graves, as had my mother, and suddenly I was on the spot myself, wondering exactly what I was supposed to do.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The time leading up to the Black Ring Ceremony was filled with activity and tension, yet I found quiet moments when I was frustrated and bored. Sip had become a ghost. She was always sneaking off somewhere to read another book, and nothing Lough or I said could prevent her. Dacer had said something to her when she’d stormed into the kitchen and he’d pulled her aside, but she wouldn’t tell me what. All she said was that she was doing it to save Lisabelle. Of course I wanted that, but I also didn’t want Sip to put herself in danger unnecessarily.

“We have meetings,” said Lough, coming into my room the morning after I dreamed about the cemetery. I sat up and gave him a questioning look, then tried to rub the haze from my eyes. While my eyes were closed I felt my bed depress, and I opened them to see my friend sitting on the bed eating a muffin, already dressed and with his hair still slightly damp.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’ve gotten used to living in close quarters. They have me up by Sigil, and that ghost’s crazy.”

“He seemed happy to see us,” I said, staring hard at Lough’s left hand, where he held what looked suspiciously like tea.

“Yes,” he said with a slight smile, seeing where my eyes were directed, “this is for you.” He handed me the piping hot mug and I took it gratefully, cradling it in my hands.

“I know what you mean,” I said. “This has always felt like home, but now
. . .”

“Is it strange knowing that Mrs. Swan isn’t dead?”

Lough and I hadn’t had a chance to talk about the machinations of my former dorm mother yet, so now we did.

“I don’t know,” I said, taking a deep breath. “She thinks she’s doing the right thing, but I don’t know if that means she really is. She’s so convinced that she knows what’s right, I think she forgets that there might be other ways.”

“Specifically, non-violent ones?” Lough asked.

I nodded.

“Gahh,” I cried, as something dark flew past my open window. I fell sideways and almost spilled my tea before I made myself remember the hot liquid contained in the mug. I righted myself and stared wide-eyed out the window that Keller had flown out of just the night before.

Lough popped the last of his muffin into his mouth and then plucked the tea from my hands. Stumbling out of bed, I raced to the window, not worrying about why Lough was still so calm. The blue curtains covered the ends of the windows and I threw them wide, staring outside.

What I saw made me stagger back a little. Righting myself again I stared at the fields of Public.

“Wow,” I whispered. “I thought it was bad for the semester Vale was here.”

Daisy and Dobrov’s mother had run Public for a semester, and she was insane.  Not the good sort of Sigil craziness, but actually certifiably nuts. But there was still something . . . paranormal about her. I assumed it was her children that kept her from going completely bonkers, or at least Dobrov. Daisy was too far gone herself to have a normalizing influence on anyone.

“Do we know what happened to Dobrov after the battle at the Circle?” Lough asked.

“No,” I said tightly. “We don’t know what happened to any of them.”

If I closed my eyes I could still smell the burning fur and flesh and see the flashes of black darkness that had filled the air while those at the Circle had fought and died.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” said Lough quietly.

“But what happened here?” I whispered. I had thought that Vampire Locke was where all the darkness had gathered: hellhounds, demons, Nocturns, hybrids. I had seen so many at Locke, how could there be this many more here?

“Professor Dacer thinks there might be more darkness overall than we had previously thought.”

I turned that over in my mind for a while, then muttered, as much to myself as to Lough, “Great.” I swallowed hard and forced myself to keep looking out at Public, to get a clear idea of just what state the place was in. The trampled grass was starting to turn green, with countless footprints in it, and it had a damp look from the recently melted snow and rain. The sky was a nondescript gray, just one big cloud. I saw no sunlight and no birds; it was like they’d all been scared away.

“What just flew past the window?” I asked quietly.

“Hybrid,” said Lough matter of factly. “They’re guarding the windows.”

“Oh, great,” I whispered. I glanced to my right, then to my left, and sure enough there were demons on either side. Glancing down I saw more, and there were also several black dots in the sky, wheeling and turning.

“Are they?” I whispered.  

“Practicing?” Lough suggested.

“Right,” I said. The hybrid in my dream had been awkward, but these were not. The hybrids soaring above Public were clearly going to be deadly fighters.

“Are you alright?” Lough asked. “This shouldn’t surprise you.”

It didn’t. I sighed and released the curtain, pulling it over the window so that the next time a hybrid flew by I didn’t have to see it.

“Lough,” I said, “I’ve been dreaming.”

I glanced at my friend. He was sitting stock still, watching me. “Yeah?” he asked.

“Well,” I said, “I’ve been dreaming about my mom and dad.” I walked toward Lough and took my tea back from him.

“That’s pretty normal,” said Lough. “I’m surprised it hasn’t happened before. Most paranormals dream about lost loved ones.”

“But the thing is, it feels real,” I said. “Last night
. . .”

But I couldn’t plunge right into it. Instead I paused, in danger of getting lost in my own thoughts. But Lough gave me a look that told me to get on with it, so I told him all about my dad and the hybrid and the cemetery. Lough frowned.

“You didn’t see him die, though, did you? Do you think he disappeared into one of the graves?”

I sighed in relief. Leave it to Lough to take something that sounds completely insane completely seriously. I loved my friend.

“I don’t know what happened,” I said.

“You can’t be afraid of what you will find at this point,” said Lough quietly. “By now you must know that in the face of grave danger and disappointment, you rise. It’s wondrous to behold, actually.”

I smiled gratefully at him. For all of Lough’s awkwardness, sometimes he said the perfect thing at the perfect time. And in my heart of hearts, I knew he had a point. I also knew that I needed to spend the day in meetings with the paranormals at Astra.

“We need to talk to Lanca and Lisabelle,” I said. “Do you think you can work on that while I talk to Dacer?”

“I’m not sure I can get in touch with Lisabelle at this point,” said Lough, “there’s so much darkness between us. But I can try. Will Sip speak to her?”

“I think so,” I said. Sip’s rantings about Lisabelle’s siding with darkness had yet to stop her from searching for a cure. If a day ever came when I had to convince Sip to let Lisabelle go, I wasn’t sure my werewolf friend would be able to take it, or whether I’d be able to accept it myself
. . .

The morning was still young, all the more reason to get going now that Lough and I had had a chance to catch up. “I need to shower,” I said, and throwing off the covers I disappeared into the bathroom, leaving him to it.

When I finally made it downstairs, Duchess Leonie was in the kitchen with Martha. The manifestation of Public’s power looked more tired than I ever remembered seeing her.

“Those useless demons are ruining my Public,” she said angrily. “And there’s nothing I can do about it. They’ve put clamps on my power to keep me from fighting back or helping the paranormals.”

I went to the stove and poured myself another cup of tea.

“Where’s Dacer?” I asked.

“He’s gone to help Sip,” said his mother. “He’s being all secretive about it.”

“Great,” I muttered. Now two of my dearests were putting themselves in mortal danger.

“Have you heard what happened at the Circle?” I asked.

When neither Duchess Leonie nor Martha responded, I set the tea kettle down and turned to look at them.

Martha was busy moving cookies from one plate to another, while Duchess Leonie examined her hands.

“What happened?” I asked again. “Is President Caid alright?”

“The High Council’s fine, but we don’t know about the president,” said Martha.

“Many others died,” said Duchess Leonie. “There were apparently competing interests among the paranormals. A small faction got in the way and tried to fight, preventing other powers from working.

Mrs. Swan. I shook my head.

“You know this Mrs. Swan?” Martha asked, as if reading my thoughts.

“She was my dorm mother here,” I explained.

“Ah, yes,” said Martha, as if she had just now remembered. “I knew her. Didn’t like her. Too tall. Public wasn’t designed for such creatures.”

But our conversation about what had happened at the Circle was interrupted by a cry of “Good morning” from the fireplace, and Sigil came zooming in. He was slender, with glasses falling most of the way down his nose.

“Morning,” I said, smiling. It was impossible not to smile at Sigil.

“Everything alright?” he asked curiously, eyeing me as I sat down with my second cup of tea for the morning.

“Oh, just fine and dandy,” I muttered, smiling weakly. Astra was already suffocating, with the demons out the window and the likelihood of traitors among us putting a damper on our discussions and plans. I wanted news of my friends and the other paranormals, but no one seemed to know anything.

“You sound like you’re eighty,” said Sigil, quirking an eyebrow at me. “It’s not a good age on you right now.”

I grinned and sipped my tea. Despite all the danger and complication, it felt good to be back with Astra’s ghost.

“What other news?” I asked.

“Well,” said Duchess Leonie, “every paranormal wants to know where you are and where the Mirror Arcane is. Rumors are flying that say you were killed in the battle at the Circle or that your powers were stolen. There’s even a rumor that you’re of the house Nascaro and that you donned the elemental crown to fight.”

I nodded; that made sense. They hadn’t wanted me for years and were afraid, but now that they were admitting that darkness had risen, they wanted my help.

“What do they think I can do?” I asked, because right now it felt like a whole lot of not much.

Duchess Leonie’s eyes were hard. “I’ve no idea what any of the paranormals are thinking at this point,” she said. “I do know that the Black Ring Ceremony is crucial. We have been invited to attend and witness the wonder.”

I choked on my food, staring at Duchess Leonie in shock. Keller had told me to come to the
Black Ring Ceremony, but I had thought he was suggesting we attack it, not that we come as guests.

Duchess Leonie had been watching my reaction and nodding. “This is to be a very civilized war,” she said, her voice cold, “until demons stab you in the back or light you up in flames.”

“We can’t go to a Black Ring Ceremony,” I said, even though it was to be Zervos’s.

“We can and we will,” said Duchess Leonie. “They have promised to give us safe passage back to Astra.

I was tempted to argue again, but something was nagging at me. I had thought that Keller was telling me to go to the Black Ring Ceremony and fight, and I still wasn’t entirely sure I was wrong. What if that was what he had meant? What if he thought it was the last time Malle would be vulnerable? What if all the prisoners they’d taken at the Circle would be at the Ceremony? I couldn’t just let them die.

I sat silently for a long time, thinking. If I could just talk to Lisabelle tonight
. . .

“The demons took a lot of prisoners at the Circle,” said Martha. “They’re bringing them here.”

Martha had confirmed my worst fears, and I wondered if the oggles were among the prisoners.

“They brought us here,” I said. “We were alone.”

“Yes, but that was Ms. Vale’s doing, not the demons’. She was trying to win favor with Malle by delivering you. I’m not sure why, something about her thinking Malle had her daughter with her.” Of course Daisy would be at Public. If she was anywhere near Keller . . .